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Wednesday, 5 June 2013

“Prints, that’s what this collection is all about, prints,” said Carolina Herreraas a preface to her 2014 resort presentation. “And seasonless,” she
added, “because there are no real seasons for clothes anymore; in summer
somewhere it’s winter, or in winter somewhere it’s summer. It’s
important everything can be worn all year round.” Out of this
straightforward inspiration and rather sensible directive Herrera spun a
deliciously pretty and elegant collection which played to her strengths
as a source of impeccable dress-up clothes (but more on that later).

Resplendent Resort: Carolina Herrera debuted
her latest collection surrounded by the beauty of the House of Herrera’s
picturesque secret garden ...

"The Resort 2014 collection was designed to
transcend season and occasion, relevant for a full lifestyle of travel
and new experience".

Carolina Herrera

Carolina's resort was delightful in its deployment of pattern, with flowers
conjured up out of her imagination and not as nature intended them,
scaled upward and downward with wild abandon over everything from
palazzo pants (they’re back! It’s certainly been a long time since I
typed those words) to evening dresses whose skirts, cut in square panels
of floral tissue organza, trailed dramatically like the wake of a ship
cutting through water.

Her resort also conspired to
advance what might think of typical Herrera-isms re-embellishment, with a
drop-dead gorgeous black silk sinuous long skirt and matching blouse
whose organza sleeves were worked with a rubberized yes, really ivory
appliqué embroidery, while the shoes were rendered in a mix of leather
and clear plastic, an idea that has been quickly gaining traction this
resort season. And there was an effortless quality to the clothes, from
the notion that many things that looked like dresses were actually two
pieces and could be separated, to their weight, which as Herrera
promised, was lightness itself. Even her tweedy suits and sheath dresses
had an airy quality to them, as evinced by that time-honored method of
empirical research on any showroom visit a quick lift off the rack and
twirled around the hangar to gauge their heft. All of this would be
appealing to pretty much anyone, but perhaps particularly to Herrera’s
new die-hard fans in Singapore. She recently took a trip there and was
blown away to see so many of her women in the grandest evening looks
worn during sunlit hours. Clearly, any time of day is as much a
consideration for some as any time of year.